The Jungle Movie Fanfic
by VampGrlDru
Summary: Done before I know, but this is my take on TJM. Arnold goes to the jungle of San Lorenzo to find his parents and must deal with the feelings of a certain blonde menace. While an ancient civilisation waits for the return of it's saviour. AxH
1. 1 Nightmare

**A/N: Ok I know this has been done before by different authors. But I have loved Hey Arnold! for over 10 years of my life and I was so dissappointed with how it ended. This is how I dream The Jungle Movie would have gone. Only if it had been in book form rather than a film script. Also this fan fic will be part one of three that I plan on creating. The Jungle Movie, The Pataki's, then concluding in their last year of High School (this one does not have a title yet). It's a huge project that I have been working on and off again for a while now and I hope that you will enjoy it. :)**

**Also this is my first time writing a HA! fan fiction so wish me luck.**

**Disclaimer: No I do not own Hey Arnold! or the words from Helga's confession all of it belongs to the amazing Craig Bartlett who I have created a statue of in my closet to worship lol**

**Chapter 1: Nightmare**

A volcano was erupting; the sound of the explosion bursting his eardrums, fire and ash shot up into the sky before crashing down from the bleeding sky onto the shadow of the rainforest before him. Shadowy figures were darting in and out of the trees so fast he couldn't get a close enough glimpse to see what they were. Suddenly in amongst the sounds of the eruption chanting echoed around him in some ancient language he couldn't understand. He looked down at his hands and saw that he was holding an old worn picture of his parents it looked torn in places and the corner was curled over. The photo was moving and he watched as his dad lifted him into the air whirling him above his head while his infant self squealed in excitement and his mother laughed watching them. He felt as though he could have stayed there forever watching it but before he could so much as blink it shifted into a map of San Lorenzo. The same map he had found in his parents diary. Finally he tore his eyes away and looked up again only to realise that he was flying a plane.

The clouds were perfectly symmetrical across the sky; the sun was setting and the orangey pink of the heavens was dyeing the tops of the trees. The plane he was flying skimmed wove in and out of the clouds then dove to skim the tops of the trees as his eyes darted around, looking for something. In the distance he spotted it, his parent's plane flying ahead of him. He drove up alongside of it.

"Come on Arnold!" yelled his father.

"Hurry up son or you'll never find us" his mother called.

His parent's aeroplane began to speed up, he put his foot down trying to chase it, but it seemed as though the faster he sped up the further away they seemed to get. He yelled after them. Just when his desperation seized him he heard a voice yell his name. It was calling him from behind, that was odd he didn't think there was anyone sat behind him. He turned.

He was stood atop of a tall grey building, the voice called his name again only this time it was louder, it sounded closer. He felt like he knew that voice as well as his own

'ARNOLD!'

He turned around and there she was, looking desperate and frantic as though her entire life depended on this one moment.

'That's right Hair Boy! I mean crimney, what else are you supposed to do when someone you love is in trouble!'

'Love?' he asked feeling confused, for a moment there he thought he had heard wrong.

'You heard me pal, I love you. Love You! Who else do you think has been stalking you night and day, building shrines of you in a closet, filling volumes of books with poems about you? I love you Arnold I've always loved you, ever since I laid eyes on your stupid football head! And from that moment and every moment since I've lived and dreamed of the moment I could finally tell you my secret feelings and to grab you and kiss you! Oh come here you big lug'

She smashed her lips onto his and he froze in shock. She was kissing him. Helga G Pataki his bully was kissing him! After the initial shock faded he began to panic. No, this can't be happening, she can't love me! This has to stop now! Roughly he pushed her off of him. His heart was racing and he was panting as though he had run a mile.

She screamed his name. A high petrified shriek that shook him to his very core. The rooftop had changed into a cliff face and Helga was falling from it. He had pushed her off. He desperately tried to reach for her and pull her back to him but she slipped through his fingers and down into the swift rapids below.

'HELGA!'

In his attic room Arnold jolted awake, his breathing was rapid and shallow his forehead was dripping with sweat. He groaned loudly and flopped back onto the bed. The clock flashed it was 2am.

'Ergh, not again,' he groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes in frustration.

He rolled onto his side and tried to get back to sleep hoping that he wouldn't have that horrible nightmare again. A twinge of fear gripped him as the image of her falling flashed across his mind.

'It'll be fine,' he tried to reassure himself as he drifted back into an uneasy sleep, 'She's probably asleep. She'll be at school tomorrow just like every other time.'

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you think**


	2. 2 School Day Surprises

**A/N: I want to apologise for taking so long to upload the second chapter. But due to exams and moving from Uni back home I couldn't find the time. However now that the summer is here I should be able to upload alot more frequently!**

**I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if the characters are sounding like Americans or that I haven't made them OOC. I'm trying make them sound as much like the originals as possible. I don't mind about the descriptions though. Thanks :D**

**Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to the amazing Craig Bartlett. Except Ms Thornton whose name I came up with when I had a serious chocolate craving going on.**

Chapter 2: School Day Surprises

HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARNOLD.

His alarm clock went off for the third time; groaning he switched it off and reluctantly rolled out of bed. It had taken him hours to finally get back to sleep last night. His eyes felt like they had weights attached to them and he strained to keep them open. Yawning widely he tugged on his clothes, taking longer than usual because in his sleep deprived state he tried to tug the arm of his shirt over his head. When he finally finished getting dressed he glanced over at his alarm clock. Arnold yelled loudly as he realised he was going to be late for the bus.

With a sudden burst of adrenaline he swung open the door and sprinted down the flights of stairs, his grandma was in the hallway dressed as a cowgirl with a lasso attached to her belt.

'Better hurry up Tex or you'll be late for the cattle drive.' His Grandma called to him as he flew past.

'I know Grandma,' he called back to her.

He ran past the kitchen and could hear the usual argument between his Grandpa and Mr Kokoscha about the rent.

'But Grandpa I'm hungry.'

'I don't care Kokoscha, you're not having anything else to eat until you pay up. That's a month's worth you owe us, and stop calling me Grandpa!'

'Just one bowl, I'm sure Suzie has the money. She can give it to you when she gets home. Heh heh.'

'You'll have nothing until then, then you lazy good for nothing.'

He opened the door but before he could take a step outside he saw Harvey the Mailman walk up the steps towards him.

'Arnold man, I got a package for you.'

'Oh thanks Harvey,' said Arnold taking the small box off of him.

'Sign here for me Arnold,' he added, handing him a note and a pen.

Arnold quickly scrawled his name before running back inside to handing the package over to Grandma.

'Thanks Grandma!' he called behind him as he ran outside.

'Go get those outlaws sheriff!' she yelled as he closed the doors.

He leapt down the stairs and ran past Harvey to the bus stop just in time to catch it as it was about to pull away.

'Bye, Harvey.'

Harvey sang to himself putting away the clipboard with a name that read Arnold Shortman away into his bag.

Arnold walked down the bus and flopped down next to his best friend Gerald. He sighed loudly and laid his head on the back of the seat his eyes closing, the movement of the bus rocking him into sleep. Just as he felt himself drifting off he was jolted awake by Gerald who prodded him.

'Yo, Arnold man, wake up. Did you have that dream again last night? You look terrible.'

'Thanks,' said Arnold giving him an annoyed look.

'It was the same dream right, the one about your parents and the volcano?' Gerald asked looking worried.

'Yeah, it was the same dream and every time I have it I always wake up yelling.'

Gerald shook his head back and forth, 'I don't know Arnold it just doesn't make sense, the dream doesn't seem all that scary so why would you yell like that every time?'

'I don't know, maybe it's just losing my parents again and again.' Arnold replied who felt extremely grateful that Gerald couldn't read minds and find out the real reason he woke up yelling every night.

He had never mentioned Helga's little cameo appearance, and had not told anyone of that incident on top of the FTI building. He didn't want to imagine what Gerald's reaction would be if he ever found out what happened up there. As agreed Helga had gone back to bullying him and acting as though nothing had happened. Sometimes he could almost believe that it had all been his imagination running wild or a dream.

_She could be a brilliant actress_, he thought.

Things had gone back to normal between them...almost. Unfortunately there had been odd little slip ups every now and then. The problem was that now that he knew her little secret. It didn't matter that she had taken it all back; her words would probably be ingrained in his mind for the rest of eternity. He kept thinking about them over and over again and a few hours after the FTI mess was all sorted out and he'd had a chance to think it over he realised that there was no possible way that it had just been a heat of the moment thing...as much as he wished that it were.

The only problem was that now every time she picked on him it became that much harder to ignore her. Every little spit wad or name she called him all just reminded him of how she really felt about him. And it was making him more and more uncomfortable around her. This had lead to some awkward situations between them, like April Fool's Day for instance...where on earth had that dancing even come from? He suddenly felt himself heat up as the memories flashed through his mind.

'Hey Arnold, are you okay? You're looking kind of red,' Gerald asked suddenly breaking him out of his thoughts.

'I...I'm fine Gerald just a little hot that's all,' he mumbled unconvincingly as his face turned even redder.

'Whatever you say Arnold,' Gerald said eyeing him disbelievingly.

The bus came to a halt and Arnold was one of the first off as he almost sprinted to the doors of the school. He was sat in his seat long before anyone else entered the classroom and kept his head down as the rest of the class filed in; Gerald was the last holding open the door for Phoebe who smiled shyly at him. As he sat down in his seat next to Arnold he gave him a small smile but didn't ask what had happened.

It wasn't until Mr Simmons began taking attendance that Arnold realised that Helga wasn't there today. His mind instantly flashed back to the dream and her screams echoed in his mind as he watched her fall off a cliff.

He shook his head trying to rid himself of the thoughts; he was being ridiculous there weren't even any cliffs in Hillwood for her to fall off of. She was probably just sick. The thought did nothing to lessen his worry though.

Mr Simmons had chosen to follow the class as they moved from 4th grade to the 5th grade. It was now reaching the end of October and not much had changed everyone was just the same as ever.

He tried his hardest to concentrate that day but no matter how much he tried to be interested in Mr Simmons maths lesson, or his history one his mind kept dragging him back to his dream. Aeroplanes and pink ribbons floated in and out of his mind all day. It had been 4 months since he had discovered his Dad's journal in the attic. Since he had learnt the reason behind why his parents had been absent all his life.

_It wasn't fair_, he thought, _that they left me like they did_.

But as usual every time these thoughts entered his mind he was consumed by over whelming guilt. He found over time that he couldn't blame them, after all his parents had left to save an entire civilisation in desperate need of medication deep in the San Lorenzo jungle. No he couldn't be angry at them; they had left to save lives and had had every intention of coming back to him and his Grandparents. It had not been there fault that their plane had crashed.

Yet even though he had got past his anger at them, he still felt this giant hole where they had left him. The worst part of it all was not knowing what had happened to them, not knowing whether they had died long ago or whether they were lost, even trapped within the jungle, alive but unable to return to him. He just wished that he could have the chance to find out He had told his best friend all of this, Gerald tried to understand, and although he didn't believe that anyone who had parents could understand truly the loneliness he felt at least Gerald was there to talk to when he felt sad about it all.

_At least I still have Grandma and Grandpa_, he thought feeling both grateful but sorrowful at the same time.

At 11 there was a loud banging of the door and in stomped possibly the only thing that kept his mind off his parents these days. She stormed moodily over to Mr Simmons to explain her tardiness.

'Thank you Helga, please take your seat,' Mr Simmons said smiling kindly at her.

She merely nodded her head moodily a scowl on her face before she went and sat in the desk behind him. He sighed tiredly waiting for her to begin firing spitballs at his head.

'At least it'll keep me from falling asleep or daydreaming,' he mumbled to himself.

But a few minutes passed into half an hour and... Nothing. She hadn't hit him with a single spitball, hadn't played a prank on him or even called him Football Head. In fact she hadn't spoken to anyone at all, even when Phoebe wished her Good morning in Japanese as she did every morning. He felt concerned that she wasn't being her usual bullying self and going against his better judgement he looked behind him.

She was slouching over the desk leaning her head on her arms and staring at Mr Simmons blankly, clearly she was pretending to pay attention but her mind was elsewhere. Her hair was pulled into its usual two blonde pigtails with her pink ribbon tied on top of her head. Suddenly realising that he was staring at her she looked up in shock. Her blue eyes widened looking fearful, but it quickly disappeared and was replaced by her usual scowl.

'What are you looking at Football Head?' she snapped.

'Nothing, I was just wondering if you were okay.'

She sat up slightly blinking in surprise, her eyes widening again. But just like before she quickly hid it.

'I'm fine, Arnoldo, now quit staring at me you little freak!'

'Sorry Helga.'

'Arnold. Helga. Could you pay attention please?'

Both of them quickly turned to face their teacher trying to pretend that nothing was going on, both of them blushed red at being caught chatting.

'Now I have a very important announcement to make, one of our students at P.S 118 has won the regional essay competition we all tried out for last month. Isn't that exciting?'

For once, the class agreed with Mr Simmons definition of exciting and began to discuss it amongst themselves.

'Calm down everyone, I know how happy you must all be about this very special news. This afternoon's lessons will be cancelled and we will all be in the auditorium. An official from the contest will be here to award the very special student for their achievement and present them with their prize.' He said beaming proudly at the class.

'Alright no lessons!' yelled Harold. The everyone around him laughed including Mr Simmons.

The bell rang loudly and everyone began madly packing up.

'Just a second, Helga could I speak to you a moment?' Mr Simmons called out.

'Oooo Helga's in trouble,' Harold shouted mockingly.

'Shut it pink boy,' Helga snapped, her eyes narrowing dangerously as she waved her fist in his face.

Harold glared at her before walking out the classroom with everyone else.

'How much are we betting that the winner will be Phoebe,' Rhonda asked boredly.

'Well gosh Rhonda I reckon that'd be a fools bet, of course it'll be Phoebe. She is the smartest kid at P.S 118,' said Stinky in his usual southern drawl.

'Well everyone, while I do appreciate the support there isn't a guarantee that the winner will be me after all there are so many of us in the school,' Phoebe's bashful voice piped up.

'I must agree with Rhonda and Stinky, Phoebe. You are just ever so smart,' added Lila smiling kindly at the small girl.

'Yeah, Phoebe just give it up. You just plain rule when it comes to school stuff,' Gerald teased as he dragged her off to his and Arnold's lunch table.

Phoebe had been sitting with them a lot more often recently, something that the whole 5th grade had not failed to pick up on. Rhonda and the other girls had begun to gossip about the idea of the pair being a couple in secret. On the other hand most of the boys just found it amusing, not because of Gerald and Phoebe. No it was because Phoebe was sitting at their table almost every day now and with Phoebe came her best friend.

She slumped down next to him and leaning forward on the table rested her head on her arms again.

'What did Mr Simmons say Helga?' Phoebe asked.

'Eh, he just gave me extra homework for the lesson I missed this morning.'

'Well that was nice of him,' she said smiling happily at a grumpy looking Helga before returning to her conversation with Gerald.

Arnold sat there playing with his food staring out of the window in boredom.

'Helga, you're not eating did your mom forget again?' Phoebe asked.

'No Phoebe, I'm fine. I just don't feel like eating.' She snapped, giving Phoebe a shut up now look.

'Ok,' she murmured.

Suddenly Arnold stood up and walked away from the table.

_Great, good job Helga. You just yelled at your best friend for being concerned about you and now Arnold probably thinks you're even more of a bully than he did before. Just perfect. Why can't you just accept someone being nice to you? _She ranted in her head, _Why do I have to act like such a basket case?_

'What do you suppose Arnold is up to Gerald?' Phoebe asked.

'I'm not sure he's been acting weird since...well since March actually.'

Helga felt her face heat up at the mention of the date knowing full well why Arnold was acting so weird. She needed to steer this conversation away from such dangerous territory quickly.

'Come on you too, Arnoldo probably just spotted someone who needs his help is all. And being the weird little loser that he is decided to use his free time to help someone carry their tray or help someone off the floor. Heck he's so lame he might be helping a poor fly in distress seek freedom. After all when he sees someone in trouble he can't help but stick his nose in like a meddling little busybody.'

A bowl of tapioca pudding was placed in front of her and she stared at it dumbfounded. Looking sideways she saw Arnold once again sat next to her eating a sandwich from a brown paper bag acting as though nothing had happened.

'What's this?' she asked dumbly.

'It's food Helga, you're supposed to eat it,' he replied smirking at her.

'And you're giving it to me because?'

'Because, what was it you said...oh yeah...when I see someone in trouble I can't help but stick my nose in like a meddling little busybody. I figured you were hungry so I bought you pudding, okay?'

Helga looked shocked at being caught but quickly replaced it with a frown and turning to face him entirely waved her finger in his face.

'Listen here, if you think that you can get me to act all pally with you just by buying me food then you're wrong. I still hate you and don't you forget it.' She snapped scowling at him.

'Whatever you say, Helga.' he said with a wide grin on his face staring back at her. He looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Helga forced herself to turn away from him before she snapped and either kissed him or threw the pudding in his face, both ideas floated temptingly into her mind. Five minutes passed as the table ate in silence.

'Thanks Football Head,' she whispered quietly breaking the silence.

'You're welcome Helga.'

Phoebe was watching them both as though they were one of Mr Simmons math problems that she was trying to solve and Gerald just looked completely confused.

On the way to the auditorium Gerald pulled Arnold aside.

'Arnold man what was with you during lunch?'

'What do you mean?'

'Don't play dumb with me; you bought Helga .G. Pataki lunch. I just want to know why is all.'

'You heard Phoebe; her mom forgot to give her food. And I just didn't believe that she wasn't hungry, so I wanted to help.'

'You're a bold kid Arnold, you know that? And sometimes you're too nice for your own good.'

'Come, on Gerald,' he said ignoring his friends comment, 'let's go inside before the prize giving starts.'

They ran into the auditorium running down the aisles managing to find two empty seats next to Peapod kid as Principal Wartz walked on stage accompanied by a woman with curly red hair wearing a blue suit.

'Students let's give a warm P.S 118 welcome to Ms Thornton who will be presenting an award to one our very own students.'

The students clapped half heartedly as the woman stepped up to the microphone.

'Hello students, as Principal Wartz has already said I am here because of a competition you all entered at the beginning of the year along with every other school in Hillwood. You each had to write about the one place in the world you'd love to visit more than any other. After our team sorted through about 100 requests to visit Disney World, we came across a piece that was educational, exotic, and full of adventure but also held personal meaning. Therefore it is our pleasure to announce that the first place prize goes to Arnold Shortman.'

Arnold stood up as the entire school clapped for him; he walked calmly to the stage where Principal Wartz and Ms Thornton shook his hand.

'As a prize you have won two free passes to Dino Land for a year and a free all expenses paid trip to the subject of your essay for 2 weeks for the entire 5th grade. That's right you and your class are going to San Lorenzo.'

_San Lorenzo! I'm going to San Lorenzo, this can't be real?_ He thought.

The last thing Arnold heard was the entire hall bursting into cheers and talking before he felt light headed and the world turned black.

* * *

><p>AN: **I'd like to thank: loonytunecrazy, Gewlicious, DanteVirgil09, ck3712, chiischi, darkest passion of love, NicNack4U and anyone else who reviewed and/or faved this story and for giving me the confidence to continue it.**

**Please review**


	3. 3 Permission

**A/N: Hey there, once again sorry about late updating believe it or not this wasn't supposed to be updated every month or so. This time I don't have much of an excuse beside exteme laziness and a couple of personal issues. But anyway hopefully you haven't all given up on me. Feel free to curse my name though :D**

**Anyway I wanted to try something different here, because of the sad nature behind Arnold and Helga's stories in this chapter I took some inspiration from the show itself (mainly the episode Egg Story) and added slightly more humourous reactions of Rhonda and Gerald's parents as a balance. Let me know if it works or not. Also I found during my school years that all parents react differently to their kids going on their first trip abroad without them there. My mum is the kind who gives you a hug, pushes you towards the coach and says have fun. So I wanted to give you different reactions from every parent.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold blah blah blah, however when I win the lottery I plan to use my money to fund a real Jungle Movie haha**

**Chapter 3: Permission**

Arnold

'Hey there Shortman, your Grandma's cooking you up some of her special soup,' said Grandpa as he entered Arnold's room.

'Grandpa, I'm fine I don't need soup.' Arnold moaned.

'I know that but you know what your Grandmother's like, crazy old bird.'

Arnold sighed but refused to comment. He felt embarrassed he couldn't believe he'd fainted in front of the entire school. The guys were going to be mocking him for weeks about that one, and Helga was going to go to town on the insults. He reached up rubbing his forehead in frustration. His mind was still trying to figure out if it was all a dream or not, he kept pinching his arm to wake himself up from what must be a dream. But, every time he felt the pain he would look at the permission slip sitting next to him on his shelves. He was really getting the chance to go to San Lorenzo.

Grandpa Phil watched as Arnold stared blankly at the letter beside his bed. His chest clenched painfully as he saw the hope in his Grandson's eyes, but it was for his own good.

'You can't go Arnold,' his Grandpa said solemnly.

Arnold's head snapped up in shock.

'What?'

'You're not allowed to go on this class trip, it's...'

'But Grandpa!'

'No buts Arnold it's too dangerous,'

'How it's a school trip,'

'Come on Shortman, I may be old but I'm not senile. If we let you go then you'll try to look for them.'

'So what, they're my parents a...'

'...and Miles was my son Arnold. Me and Pookie tried everything we could. We sent search teams, detectives...everything.'

Silence filled the room as they both look anywhere but at one another.

'It's been nine years, they're not coming back Arnold. So you're staying here understand.'

He finally managed to look at his Grandson sat in his bed; he looked like he was close to crying.

'I'm sorry Arnold, but it's for the best.'

Phil turned and walked towards the door, but as he grasped the handle he heard Arnold speak to him in a quiet voice.

'If I don't at least try to find out what happened to them...I'll regret it for the rest of my life and I'll never stop wondering.'

Phil's hand stiffened on the door handle but he turned it and opened the door, shutting it behind him determinedly. As he walked down the stairs he tried to ignore the crash he heard echoing around the room.

* * *

><p><span>Helga <span>

'I'm home,' Helga called as she arrived walked through the open door. No one responded, but she hadn't expected anyone too anyway. Sighing, she dumped her bag in the hall and pulling out a piece of paper walked into the living room. Big Bob Pataki was sat on the couch watching The Wheel on the TV, drinking his beer and eating pork rinds.

'Dad?' she called.

As usual her Dad ignored her.

'Dad!' she said raising her voice.

'What, what is it I'm watching TV,' he complained loudly waving his arm in her direction.

'I need you to sign this permission slip for our class trip.'

She shoved the piece of paper under his nose in an attempt to drag his attention away from the TV.

'Huh, oh sure thing Olga.'

He took the piece of paper out of her hands then grabbing a pen from his pocket signed it. Helga grew annoyed as the familiar sting of Big Bob's neglect washed over her.

'It's Helga, Dad,' she snapped.

His only response was a flippant, 'whatever,' as he shoved the note back into her hands.

'Thanks a lot Dad,' she said sarcastically as she stomped up the stairs to her room. She kicked her bedroom door open slamming it shut behind her. She kicked her shoes off and threw her bag on the floor before flopping onto her bed.

'Why is it he never gets my name right, I've told him a million times my name is Helga. But all he cares about is his precious Olga.' She said angrily emphasising her older sister's name. Suddenly her voice lost all its aggression taking on a dreamy quality as she took out a locket from the pocket sewn to the inside of her dress.

'Oh Arnold, my love sometimes it seems as though you're the only one to ever notice I exist. If only I hadn't been so cowardly. If only I hadn't taken back my feelings for you. But someday I swear to you that I'll have the courage to say it again and I won't take it back!'

She rose to a kneeling position on the bed looking out the window and into the clouds above.

'But, surely someone as kind and wonderful as Arnold could never love someone like me. Surely the past 7 years of almost constant torment I've put him through is too much even for him to look past. What should I do?'

She sighed longingly as she continued to stare at the shapes the clouds made as they rolled past. The look on Arnold's face as he had given her the pudding during lunch kept floating to the surface of her mind, giving her a small ray of hope. She shifted slightly on the bed and stuck her knee on a piece of paper. She grabbed it and held it in front of her eyes seeing that it was the permission slip for San Lorenzo.

'That's it! That's the answer,' she yelled happily twirling around her bedroom. 'I'll use this trip to show Arnold the real me, to show him my good side. Even if he doesn't fall for me, he might accept being my friend. Then at least I'll get to spend time with him.'

She smiled happily at the letter and ignoring the bangs on the ceiling and yells for her to be quiet she opened her backpack. She tugged out a pink book, a small empty pudding cup and a spoon and made her way over to her closet pulling the door closed behind her.

* * *

><p><span>Rhonda <span>

'Daddy you have to get me out of this. I don't do camping.' Rhonda begged her father while kneeling on the floor of the Wellington-Lloyd's living room. She looked up at her father with fake tears in her eyes.

'Now now Princess calm down. This trip might be a good lesson for you.' said Buckley attempting to placate his daughter.

'Buckley you can't be serious, our precious little Rhonda running around in the jungle of all places. She could get lost, or catch a disease!' a frantic Brooke begged, over reacting just as much as Rhonda was. She reached down and pulled her daughter up off of their expensive newly polished wooden floor.

'It says in the letter that all the students will be given their shots at the school a week before they leave, and that they have hired a professional guide to take them around. They'll be taking a charted route.' Buckley said calmly.

'But it's dirty in the jungle, and they'll be bugs and all sorts of gross creatures.' sniffed Rhonda

'You're going Rhonda and that's final, so don't pout.'

'Mother!' she shrieked, turning from one parent to the other.

'You heard your father, dear.' Brooke said miserably sitting on a chair fanning herself with a magazine.

'I won't go I just won't' she yelled, changing tactics and stomped her feet angrily.

'Come now Rhonda darling, we'll buy you lots of new clothes and the best equipment money can buy. Won't we Buckley?' said Brooke turning to her husband and shooting him a look.

'Of course we will dear, we can't have our perfect little Rhonda running around the jungle in anything less than the best.'

Rhonda stopped her fake sniffling and a huge smile launched itself onto her face. She might not have got her way but she had lots of shopping to look forward to. And if there was anything Rhonda Wellington Lloyd liked more than getting her own way it was showing off all her new clothes to her classmates.

She hugged her father tightly round the middle and looked up smiling innocently up at him.

'Oh Daddy you're the best!'

* * *

><p><span>Gerald <span>

Gerald stood nervously looking between his parents who were reading the long letter about San Lorenzo sat next to each other at the kitchen table.

'It does sound exciting, Gerald,' his mother said smiling kindly at him.

'And you say it won't cost anything,' his father said, looking at the piece of paper suspiciously.

'Martin,' said Gerald's mother looking at her husband sternly.

'I just want to know what I'll be spending for this,' he replied stubbornly.

'It's free trip Dad, Arnold won a competition at school,' said Gerald trying to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

Gerald had been expecting this kind of reaction from his Dad, he was always moaning about how much everything cost.

'Good for him, he's such a sweet boy, I expect he's excited about winning then?' his Mom asked.

'Err yeah?'

To be honest Gerald wasn't sure how Arnold was feeling about this trip, the boy had fainted and been taken home before he'd had a chance to speak to him. So unless he was supposed to take passing out on a stage in front of hundreds of students as over-excitement he had no idea.

'We're still going to spend money on new clothes, equipment, and travel essentials,' his Dad said, breaking Gerald out of his thoughts.

'Does this mean I can't go?' he asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

'No it just means that I'll be spending less than I'd have expected from a trip like this.'

'I can go?' he asked hopefully.

'Yes honey you can go,' his Mom said laughing slightly.

'Yes!' Gerald yelled, punching his fist into the air and leaping about the kitchen, glad that no one from school was there to witness his un-cool outburst.

* * *

><p><span>Helga<span>

It was two weeks later at the Pataki household; Olga had come to visit the family for the next few weeks much to Helga's chagrin. They were all sat at the dinner table eating some weird French dish that Olga had cooked up.

'Mom can I borrow ten bucks?' Helga asked interrupting her parents constant praising of their oldest daughter.

'What do you need ten bucks for missy?' asked Big Bob, butting in on the conversation.

'I need some things for my school trip.'

She shrugged pushing the unknown food on the dish around the plate a little.

'What school trip?' he asked stupidly.

Helga sighed loudly rolling her eyes before speaking, her voice on edge.

'The one I told you about two week's ago.' she snapped.

'She's right B you signed the form for her.' Her Mom said, Helga blinked rapidly amazed that her mother had remembered. Usually her mother was barely conscious during the day.

'I don't remember you saying anything about a school trip. When is it?'

'In five days, we're going to San Lorenzo.' she said in a bored voice.

'SAN LORENZO! And just how are you paying to get there?' he yelled waving his fork in her face.

'Some kid in our class won a competition it's free, Dad,' she replied sarcastically glaring at the fork in her face.

'Well that's alright then.' He said, leaning back in his chair and returning his attention to his food.

Helga sat there for a few moments in silence waiting to see if he'd remember about her asking for money.

'I'll take Helga shopping Daddy,' Olga piped up in her annoyingly cheery voice, 'you must be excited about your trip baby sis?'

'I'm bouncing off the walls' she said in a deadpan voice.

'Oh Helga you silly,' she chuckled completely ignoring the annoyed look on Helga's face, 'we'll go after we've finished our dinner. What do you say?'

_I say I'd rather have someone drill my eyes out._ She thought. But before she had a chance to speak her frustration with her sister her mother chipped.

'That sounds like a wonderful idea Olga honey; you're so kind to help out your sister during your vacation.'

'So it's settled Olga will take the girl shopping.' Bob said closing the matter once and for all.

'Greaaaat' she said leaning against the back of her chair and folding her arms, but none of them heard her as they continued talking about Olga's achievements.

* * *

><p><span>Arnold <span>

Arnold moved like a zombie as she paced the familiar hallways of the boarding house. This was to be his fifteenth attempt to persuade his Grandparents to change their minds. He just had to go. They would be leaving in five days and if he didn't succeed tonight then it was all over. He'd never get a chance again. The thought hurt so much that he felt tears building in his eyes. He blinked them back just as he heard his Grandpa calling him through the door.

'Arnold can you come in here for the moment?'

His hands clenched into fists as fear gripped him. He took a deep breath pushing the door open and stepping into the kitchen where his grandparents were sat together holding hands and watching him. It was one of those rare moments where both of them were completely serious, even his Grandma looked at him without that hint of crazy playfulness that she usually held in her eyes. He stood there and stared at them both curiously his throat becoming dry as he feared the worst.

'It's about this school trip,' his Grandpa said finally breaking the silence.

This was it he had to speak quickly before they could tell him no again; before he lost his final shot.

'Grandpa I...'

'We've decided to let you go' said his Grandma cutting him off.

He froze, did she really just say he could go. He looked to his Grandpa quickly to make sure that his Grandma hadn't just had one of her crazy moments. But he smiled as well confirming that it was true. He couldn't believe it, he could go? What had he done to change their minds? His mind ran back through the past couple of weeks.

'Arnold, are you there?' his Grandma called.

'Really, you're letting me go?' he finally said in a small voice. His eyes continuously darted back and forth between them.

'We know you'll never be happy until you try Arnold, you take after Miles and Stella too much. So after a lot of talking we've decided to let you go.' His Grandpa stated gravely.

All three of them sat in silence as they thought about Arnold's parents. His Grandma got up from the table and kissing Arnold on the head left the room smiling sadly.

'Grandma made you didn't she?' he asked looking at the place where his Grandma had left the room.

'Yes she did, threatened me with raspberries in every meal for a month.' Arnold chuckled loudly at this revelation.

'But all joking aside Shortman, promise me you'll come back to us.' he said his face turning grave once again.

'I promise Grandpa,' he said quietly.

'I'm not sure your Grandma's poor heart could take it if we lost you too.'

Silence descended again across the room, Arnold could feel his Grandpa's eyes on him as he stared at the tiles on the floor.

Finally Arnold turned to leave the room.

'Thanks Grandpa,' Arnold said pausing, his hand on the doorknob.

'Goodnight Arnold,' his Grandpa said smiling at him.

'Night Grandpa.'

Arnold sighed as the door closed behind him, his heart felt heavy as the mixed emotions of sadness, guilt, happiness and excitement coursed through his veins. He was going to San Lorenzo in five days, this was his shot and he wasn't going to blow it for anything. This was something he just had to do. Yet he couldn't help but worry about his Grandpa's words, what would they do if something happened to him too? Especially in San Lorenzo a place that held so many bad memories for their family.

He'd come back no matter what.

'I promise.'

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><p>AN: Please review :D


	4. 4 Buses, Bitching and Aeroplanes

**A/N: Hey here's the next chapter. Decided to name the chapter after the episode Buses, Bikes and Subways as both include journey's and a bus.**

**Thanks to my reviewers and anyone out there watching but not commenting, it makes me glad to know that there are people who are enjoying my story :)**  
><strong>You guys are awesome!<strong>  
><strong>Also a special thanks to my sister who read this chapter first. (She loves Rhonda so I added her in, in her honour)<strong>  
><strong>Hope you enjoy!<strong>

Chapter 4: Buses, Bitching and Aeroplanes

The next couple of days passed alarmingly fast for most, but for Arnold it had gone at a snail's pace. The faster he wanted time to go by the longer it seemed to take. Finally though the bags were packed and they were waiting outside Hillwood Elementary waiting for the bus to take them to the airport.

He had had that dream again last night. It seemed as though every time it happened it became more vivid, more real. Every time the dream ended he would wake up even more terrified than the last time. It was frustrating him to no end. He just wanted them to end. Maybe the trip would finally give him peace, finally settle something inside him.

_Then maybe I can finally get some sleep_, he thought to himself. He yawned, leaning back on his hands as he sat on the steps leading up the P.S.118's entrance.

Gerald who was sat next to him was talking about something his older brother Jamie 'O' had done last night to annoy him. He tried his hardest to listen to his best friends annoyed ranting but his lack of sleep for the past few days and the fact that it was 6 in the morning on a Monday meant that he was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything.

'And then he told Mom and Dad that it was all my fault, it's a good job we're going away or I'd be grounded for a week. Hopefully they'll have forgotten all about it by the time we get back,' moaned Gerald.

After not getting an overly positive response from his eternally optimistic best friend he asked, 'Arnold are you okay?'

'Huh? Oh yeah Gerald I'm fine, just tired,' he said trying to stifle a well timed yawn.

'Man, tell me about it. 5am I had to get up. 5AM! I don't see why we had to leave so early. San Lorenzo's still going to be there whether we get a flight at 7 or 11,' Gerald grumbled.

'I believe that the reason is so that we miss as little of the day as possible, after all it will be a 7 hour flight to San Lorenzo,' Phoebe interjected suddenly standing in front of the two boys.

Gerald came out of his bad mood instantly on seeing Phoebe smiling down at him and he grinned back hoping that he looked cool and not like some love sick fool.

'Either way it sucks having to get up so early,' he replied.

'What's the matter Tall Hair Boy, not a morning person?' Helga snickered as she strode up to the three of them her arms crossed across her chest and a smirk on her face.

Gerald gave her a glare before blanking her completely. He wasn't going to have Helga G Pataki ruin this vacation for him. As he struck up a conversation moving closer to Arnold to make room for her on the steps, Helga rolling her eyes silently walked over to Arnold's other side and sat down, leaning back on her hands mimicking him perfectly.

Arnold eyed her suspiciously waiting for the punch line, but the insult he was waiting for never came. Maybe she was too tired to bother making fun of him at the moment. He observed that she was wearing a bright pink tank top with a red stripe across the middle and a pair of blue shorts rather than her usual pink dress. He noticed that she was blushing and realised that he had been staring at her. His head snapped back to staring at the street in front of him.

Helga gulped loudly pulling her arms around herself. They had all been told to dress for San Lorenzo weather. But standing in just shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of winter waiting for a bus was anything but a good idea. She wished she'd at least had the brains to bring a sweater.

'Well class we'll be leaving in just a few minutes, are you all excited?' asked Mr Simmons smiling brightly at them all. There were a few cheers of excitement. Rhonda groaned loudly.

'As you all know we had a small problem earlier when one of our chaperones poor Mrs Marsh broke her leg yesterday morning. But luckily we have found a volunteer replacement. So everyone give an extra special thank you for Miss Olga Pataki!'

Helga's hands slipped from underneath her and her back hit the steps.

'No, no, no, no, NO! This isn't happening. Please let it all be some nightmare.' Helga begged. Trying her best to slip between the bars and off the side of the stairs.

'I am happy to help, and especially as it will mean I get to take this trip with my baby sister!' Olga cooed in her cheery voice.

She slipped the rest of the way through the bars and crouched down out of sight. Helga heard her class mates begin to laugh and she groaned loudly, slapping the palm of her hand into her forehead. Arnold leaning over the side started down at her as though she had lost her mind. Looking up she pressed her finger to her lips for him to be quiet.

'Turn around,' she hissed at him waving frantically at him to turn around.

'Baby sis? Helga! Where are you?' Olga called in her sugar coated voice, 'There you are Helga you silly, what are you doing down there? You can play hide and seek with your little friend later.

Helga picked herself off of the floor grumbling.

'What are you doing here Olga?' she asked grumpily.

'Your teacher Mr Simmons called the house last night. He said that one of your teachers was injured so they were looking for any adults who could take her place at short notice, Daddy almost hung up on him but luckily I was standing nearby and of course I was only too happy to help. I packed my bags and told Mommy where I was going and here I am. I was going to tell you last night but I wanted it to be a big surprise for my baby sis. Won't this be fun? Now I can spend special quality time with my baby sister and my lil sis Lila.'

She smiled brightly at Helga, her perfect white teeth sparkling annoyingly at her. Helga sighed rubbing her arm in frustration.

'That's great news Olga,' she said failing to hold back her sarcasm, but once again her sister seemed not to notice.

'Oh and you forgot your sweater this morning, I found it on a chair in the kitchen,' she said, brightly holding out Helga's sweater for her to take.

Helga blinked at the piece of clothing in shock for a few seconds before slowly reaching out to take it from her.

'T-Thanks' she muttered quietly. She quickly pulled it on over her head as the bus pulled up to the school.

The trip to the airport had been filled with the usual, Rhonda and Nadine chattering, Harold stuffing his face with sweets, Eugene getting travel sickness. Principal Wartz giving Harold, Stinky and Sid detentions for continuously playing, 'are we there yet'. Finally they had arrived at the airport and now they were all waiting for Mr Simmons to clear all their tickets.

'Nadine, just look at all these fashion disasters especially that guy! I mean a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops, really? I bet he's not even going to Hawaii,' Rhonda said in disgust as she analysed everyone's clothes.

As the man came closer Rhonda realised to her horror that the man in the Hawaiian shirt was in fact Principal Wartz who had taken his suit off in the bathrooms. He rocked back and forth on his feet, a large grin on his face. He seemed more excited about this trip than most of the kids.

'Hello their children, are we looking forward to our trip into a jungle?' Principal Wartz asked, walking right up to them.

Rhonda looked ashamed to be seen near him. Nadine rolled her eyes at her friend.

'It's very exciting Principal Wartz sir, apparently there are 20,000 species of spider in San Lorenzo. I am looking forward to locating a few of them.'

'20, 000 Spiders!' Rhonda yelped looking as though she'd just walked into a horror film. Principal Wartz left the two girls to their conversation spotting Sid and Stinky attempting to climb aboard an empty luggage cart.

'Of course Rhonda, San Lorenzo is home to millions of species of insect and arachnid that can't be found in any other part of the world,' Nadine replied in an obvious tone.

'That's it I'm staying here, I don't care what Daddy says,' she huffed crossing her arms.

'Come on Rhonda, I'm sure it won't be that bad. Aren't you at least a little excited to be going to a jungle? There aren't many people that can say they've done that.'

'Unless the jungle comes with a secret shopping mall and luxurious spa, I'm not interested,' she huffed.

Nadine gave up on her best friend and began a conversation with Sheena ignoring the moody girl stood next to her.

As they made their way across the terminal to the aeroplane that would take them to San Lorenzo, Harold began whining.

'Aww man, I'm hungry! Will there be food on the plane?' Harold wailed in his usual obnoxiously loud voice.

'Why yes Harold, once we reach a safe altitude then there will be an in flight meal.' replied Mr Simmons attempting to placate Harold.

Whilst Harold rejoiced at the thought of getting food soon some of the other kids, especially Rhonda, scrunched their noses in disgust at the thought of airline food.

'Nadine I can't believe I'm being forced to come on this field trip by my parents. I mean it's the JUNGLE! Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd does not do nature. Character building, AS IF! If they expect me to eat that disgusting airline food then I might be sick. I don't think my digestive tract could take anything as common as plane food.'

Nadine rolled her eyes at Rhonda's ranting but decided to keep her mouth shut. As they all walked up the aisle the planes doors in sight Lila came up alongside Arnold.

'Why I'm ever so sure that the food will be lovely, don't you think so Arnold?' she asked.

'Huh, yeah it'll probably be alright,' he agreed. _Lovely_ he thought_, is stretching it just a bit far though._

'Aren't you just ever so excited to be on this trip? I'll bet the jungle is ever so beautiful,' she said.

Arnold's thoughts went to a beautiful idyllic jungle and his parents stood there waiting with open arms.

'Yeah, I'll bet it is,' he said turning to look at her the half dreamy look still plastered on his face.

He heard someone growl angrily from behind him and something hit him in the shoulder as they barged past him.

'Outta my way Football Head!' Helga snapped at him.

He went flying onto his hands and knees. Looking up from the floor he saw Helga storm off looking incredibly angry.

'Oh gosh Arnold, are you alright?' Lila gasped grabbing Arnold's arm and helping him upright.

He shrugged her off, Helga was still only a few feet in front of him and it was probably for the best if he kept interactions with Lila to a minimum just in case she really lost her temper. He stared worriedly at the back of Helga's blonde pigtailed head and sighed. He had only been talking to Lila did she have to go nuts like that? Wait, why did he even care? It wasn't as though he was going out with her. The thought brought a blush to his cheeks and he coughed loudly trying to make himself snap back to reality.

'You first Lila,' he said standing aside to let her onto the plane first.

'Why thank you ever so much Arnold,' she said and smiling skipped off ahead to find her seat. He breathed out a sigh of relief as soon as both girls were out of his sight.

Walking down the aisle of the plane, Mr Simmons was already struggling to keep his very excited class under control. Harold was kicking the back of Sid's chair. Nadine and Rhonda were gossiping loudly whilst unbeknownst to them Curly peered over the back of their seats trying to sniff Rhonda's hair. Eugene had fallen over and into the lap of a giant burly looking man. The rest of the passengers were looking aghast at the children. He passed by all of this looking back and forth from his seat ticket to the numbers above the chairs. Finally he managed to find his seat only to discover someone already sat in it. There sat Phoebe lightly discussing something with Gerald. It looked like they were having fun. Both of them suddenly looked up and Phoebe blushed. Gerald stood up and whispered in his ear.

'Do you mind switching with Phoebe for a little while? I'll owe you big man.'

'Its fine I'll just take Phoebe's seat,' he said smiling kindly at the girl.

'Why thank you Arnold, my seat is just in front,' she said shyly pointing ahead of her.

Arnold took a step to the left and sure enough. Exactly as he had expected there she was, sat there staring out of the window completely unaware of him watching her. He flopped down half reluctantly into the seat next to her.

'Hey Phoebs,' she said not looking to see who had sat down, 'took the window seat, I hope you don't mind I just really wanted to look at the view when we're high up. I bet it'll look just amazing.'

She sighed slightly and Arnold smiled.

'That's ok, if you really want to see the view you can keep the window seat Helga,' Arnold said trying his best not to laugh.

She span around in her seat, he eyes huge

'Arnold! I mean, what the hell are you doing sneaking up on me Football Head and why are you sat next to me, where's Phoebe?' she growled.

Arnold was amazed at how quickly she could change her personality. It was almost as quick as switching a light on.

'Phoebe and Gerald wanted to sit next to one another for a while,' he said shrugging innocently.

She huffed slouching in her seat as the plane began its take off.

The silence was deafening and not just because the rapid ascending of the aeroplane was making Arnold's ears pop painfully. He cupped his hands over his them and winced, it felt like they were being stabbed with needles.

Opening his eyes he saw Helga's hand in front of him holding a stick of gum. He looked at her with confusion. She sighed impatiently and yanking his hand away from his ear she shoved the piece of gum there.

'Chew it Paste-For-Brains it helps with the ear popping thing,' she snapped.

He took the gum out of its wrapper and stuck it in his mouth and began chewing. Although it didn't stop the popping it helped with the pain.

As the plane righted itself, and his hearing went back to normal he turned and smiled at the girl sat next to him about to thank her, but she wasn't looking at him. She was staring out the window looking at the golden sun reflecting off the clouds. He big blue eyes staring in wonder at it all, a small smile on her usually scowling face.

'It's beautiful,' she whispered.

He smiled as he watched her lean her head against the window, deciding not to interrupt her.

'Arnold, are you absolutely sure you want to do this? I mean we could get in a lot of trouble for it. We could get lost, or injured,' Gerald asked him a couple of hours later after Arnold and Phoebe had switched back seats.

'Gerald, you don't have to come if you don't want to. But I have to do this, they're my parents,' he said annoyed. It was the fifth time he had asked him that question.

'Hey, I'm coming! I never said I wasn't coming.' Gerald said looking at Arnold worriedly, 'Like I'm going to leave my best friend alone running through the jungle. I was just...checking you hadn't changed your mind,' he said unconvincingly.

'Whatever you say, Gerald,' Arnold replied smirking.

Gerald went quiet for a while, looking like he was trying to think of something while Arnold continued flicking through his father's journal that he'd brought with him. Gerald glanced down at the map that Arnold had pulled out of the back of the journal.

'Tell me you have a plan, man,' he asked desperately.

'When it gets dark and everyone goes to sleep, we'll sneak out of the camp and using the map I found in my Dad's journal and this compass I ordered through the mail, we'll make our way through the jungle to the Green Eye's temple. Then once we find them we'll ask them what happened to my parents and...and...'

'And?'

'And I'm not sure what after that. I suppose we just use what they say to track them down,' he said shrugging.

'Arnold, that doesn't sound like much of a plan. I mean what if they don't speak English? Phoebe was telling me about the tribes of other jungles and rainforests in South America and well a lot of them have their own languages. From the sound of your parent's journal the Green-Eyed people haven't had much contact with the outside world, since ever. So I can't see them as been fluent English speakers and I don't know about you Arnold but I don't know any other languages.'

Arnold frowned down at the map in his hands.

'I know it's a long shot Gerald,' he said sadly.

'I'll go with you to the end, but I just don't want you getting your hopes up too much man,' his friend said sympathetically.

'I know Gerald, I know,' he sighed.

They both fell silent trying not to think about the impossibility of what they were attempting.

Crouched down in the seats in front of them Phoebe looked at Helga to see her friend's wide eyes looking at her in shock. 'What?' she mouthed at Phoebe, but the small girl only shook her head in answer.

Neither of them could believe what they were hearing.

**A/N:Uh oh busted, looks like two certain someones have found out the boy's little secret, but what will they do about it?  
>Please review :)<strong>


	5. 5 Welcome to the Jungle

**A/N: Hello again, my amazing readers. I have for you the next chapter of my Jungle Movie...although you've probably already guessed that if you're here. Anyway enough of my silliness.  
><strong>

**About this chapter:  
><strong>**1) I found it really hard to get this chapter going, as I looked over my notes I realised I had planned everything but how they got from the airport to the jungle. Anyway I was stumped on what to do as I didn't want to jump scenes to soon into it. The only helpful suggestion I got was from my sister who said they should ride elephants. I told her there were no elephants in Central America and she said they should ride Alligators instead. So, after hitting her over the head I decided that I would instead simply jump from the aeroplane right into the jungle and have Arnold give the background you'd need. Trust me nothing interesting happens between then. Anywho, hope it doesn't throw people off too much.  
><strong>**2)The names Elena, Delgado and Miguel are all from different friends of mine that I kinda stuck together, the characters however are not based on them and Rodriguez came from watching Futurama while I was writing this. So I owe that name to Bender and Matt Groening**** :P**

**As always thanks to those who've reviewed, faved, alerted and just read this story, so far.**

**As a special thanks I would like to dedicate this chapter to my sister, Starborg who was the first to read it, my twin, DeadRosesofHate and Minirowan who has been both helpful and fun to chat with over the past couple of weeks. You guys are great. :D**

**Disclaimer: No I don't own Hey Arnold! but if I did you can guarentee that there'd be a lot more Curly going nuts in it ;P**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 5: Welcome to the Jungle<span>**

Arnold had never seen so much green in his life, hundreds of different shades of one colour surrounded him. From the leaves that had fallen to the ground, plants dotted around the pathway to the high sweeping canopies that interlocked above him blocking out the skies themselves. Instead of the sun spreading light on them it shone through a roof of leaves giving everything an eerie green glow.

The class traipsed through the dense humid jungle, Arnold was glad he had left his normal clothes at home and was instead wearing his normal plaid shirt with a pair of shorts, sneakers and his usual baseball cap sitting on his large head. His shirt was sticking to his back from the humidity. He wiggled his tongue around in his dry mouth to stop it from sticking to his gums.

'Need a drink,' Gerald asked smirking at him as he held out his water bottle.

'Thanks Gerald,' he rasped as he took the bottle. He regretted packing his water bottle into his backpack now; he'd have to dig it out when they stopped for a break.

'Do not worry, your body will get used to the climate change soon,' Elena said smiling at him and Gerald.

Their guides were Mr Miguel Rodriguez and Elena Delgado. Large and built like a tank Mr Rodriguez looked intimidating with his large muscles his assortment of gadgets and large gun, but under his large black moustache was a warm smile that reached all the way to his brown eyes. He looked like he was in his forties and had thick black hair under a large beige hat. He had told them he was an explorer in his heart but worked as a tour guide in the jungle as a means of paying the bills.

Elena was a bright a cheerful young woman who looked about Olga's age. Her short hair was black, and she had bright green eyes. She seemed to be excited and fascinated by all around her despite her claim that she had worked with Mr Rodriguez for two years now and had made this trip many times. Elena was an expert in medicine, which Arnold felt would probably mean the poor woman would have to spend most of her time looking after Eugene and his many disasters. He had already sat on an ant hill and been bitten all up his legs and they had been here for less than an hour.

Mr Simmons and Principal Wartz were having difficulties in controlling the class, especially Curly who had stripped down to a loin cloth and began calling himself Curlzan. He was now attempting to climb every tree he walked past.

'Curly could you calm down please,' Mr Simmons begged.

'Young man, put on some clothes this instant!' yelled Principal Wartz.

'My name is not Curly! I am the mighty Curlzan leader of the gorillas!' he cackled insanely.  
>'Hey, mighty Curlzan, there are no gorillas in San Lorenzo, ya moron!' Helga yelled as he ran past her and into the bushes.<p>

'Twisted little freak needs to be kept on a leash,' she muttered to herself.

Arnold began chuckling at her words; and she turned her head to stare at him. He knew why, it was very rare that he would find her sarcastic jabs at their classmates funny. He smiled nervously at her just thankful that he was already hot so she could not see his face turn red. When he smiled at her, her eyes went wide and she fell over.

'Ouch,' she griped.

'Are you okay?' Arnold asked holding out a hand to help her up.

She stared at him her nervously, she almost looked shy as she reached forwards to grip his hand.

'Heeelllga fell over,' Harold yelled loudly in his mocking voice. He began pointing at her and laughing.

As soon as Harold and the rest of the boys began laughing at her the shocked look disappeared from her face to be replaced by her normal angry scowl.

She shoved herself off the ground batting Arnold's hand out of the way.

'I'm fine Football Head,' she said in a monotone voice. He noticed that she was looking determinedly to her left rather than at him.

Then she stood up and grabbed Harold by his shirt effectively shutting up him and the boys surrounding him.

'Listen up Pink Boy, if I hear you laughing at me for the rest of the trip then I will make you eat your tongue, you got that!' she yelled at him.

'Helga! Put down your little friend, there's no need to play so roughly, especially for a girl,' Olga cooed making Helga release Harold, 'Baby sister your knee is injured! Elena!'

'I'm fine Olga!' Helga snapped, trying to get away from her overbearing sister.

'What is the matter here?'

'Oh Elena, my baby sister Helga's injured,' Olga sobbed.

'I'm fine Olga,'

'Well it is bleeding, let me disinfect it and give you a plaster, just in case it becomes infected,' Elena said whipping out her kit.

'Fine,' she said grudgingly.

Nadine and Phoebe were stood on either side of Mr Rodriguez chatting to him about the wildlife in San Lorenzo.

'And you'll notice that snake over there is a _Micrurus alleni _also known as the...'

'Allen's Coral Snake also located in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, highly poisonous but when confronted with humans is far more likely to flee than bite,' Phoebe butted in excitedly.

'That is correct and those ants that your little friend got bitten by were only one species out of...'

'One hundred and twenty-six that have been identified in San Lorenzo, such as _Acromyrmex octospinosus_, the leaf cutter ant. But there are many others that scientists believe have yet to be discovered deep within the jungle,' piped up Nadine, with her bug obsession she was in her element in this environment.

'Well, well I must say your students are impressive Mr Simmons, they definitely seem to have done their research,' Mr Rodriguez chuckled turning to their teacher.

'Yes, we are very proud of Phoebe and Nadine they're two of my best students,' he said, before racing off to pull Curly away from a vine he was trying to swing from.

'I'm tired are we there yet!' Harold whined.

'No, we have barely begun our journey young man,' Mr Rodriguez answered.

'Awwww man,' Harold moaned.

'Well gosh Harold we've only been here for an hour,' said Stinky.

'Yeah Harold, what's the matter can't keep up?' Sid teased, smirking at the overweight boy stood in front of him.

'I can keep up just fine and you better quit making fun of me, or I'll pound ya,' Harold growled.

'Well gee Harold we were only messing,' said Stinky sadly.

'Yeah Harold, it's cool we were just messing, its kinda boring here, not much to look at but plants.'

'Boring huh? Then maybe we should do something to make it more fun,' Harold said, smirking at his two best friends.

'Like what?' asked Stinky, scratching his head.

'Come here, I got a plan for the best prank ever.'

Sid and Stinky leant in closer to Harold to hear his prank idea.

'Well boy howdy Harold that does sound like one heck of a prank,' Sid said in awe.

'Gee I don't know fellas we sure could get in a lot of trouble for that.'  
>Stinky backed away from them slightly looking worried.<p>

'Stinky's right Harold what if Wartz catches us?'

'What's he gonna do make us stay after school,' Harold mocked laughing, 'we're in the middle of nowhere, Wartz has nothing on us.'

Both of them still stood there looking at him as though they weren't sure.

'I'm the boss here and I say were doing this tonight when everyone's asleep.'

'Okay Harold,' they both agreed.

Finally after hours of walking they came to their first campsite. Pitching the tents had been confusing work and if it hadn't have been for the leadership of their guides then they might never have gone up. Twice Eugene had destroyed the boy's tent by walking into the poles until they had all protested that he shouldn't be allowed to help.

They watched the sun set dyeing the sky a blood red causing the jungle surrounding them to cast long twisted shadows, scaring Sid. The red slowly receded across the sky and thousands of small lights began bursting into life in the inky darkness. It was beautiful and none of them had seen anything quite like it. Even when they had switched all the lights off in the city to see Sally's Comet fly over them the stars hadn't shone as brightly as they did now.

Everyone was exhausted from a long day of travelling and walking, heads began nodding as they chewed sleepily on their food. Everyone was gathered around the large campfire that Elena had set up except Curly who was sitting in a nearby tree making strange monkey noises. Even the teachers had given up trying to make him behave and instead opted to leave him be; as long as he didn't leave the group he was doing no harm after all.

Arnold stared into the fire, but it made his eyes water and spots appeared in his vision. He chose to watch the rest of the group instead. Harold, Stinky and Sid were all huddled together whispering. Sheena was fussing over Eugene whose ant bites seemed to be swelling. Rhonda sat down nervously her eyes darting around her, gripping a can of bug spray. Nadine sat next to her and appeared to be drawing bugs in a journal. Gerald sat listening to Phoebe talk about everything she had learnt today with a intent if slightly confused look on his face. The weirdest of all was Helga who'd been forced to sit between her older sister and Lila; she looked like she was close to killing both of them, or herself. She looked pretty miserable actually.

'The students are looking tired Simmons, probably best if they all went to bed,' said Principal Wartz.

Everyone began moaning at once.

'Before we all head off to bed why don't we have a campfire story,' Mr Simmons suggested calmly in an attempt to placate the children and Wartz.

The class began chatting excitedly amongst themselves.

'I believe Elena and I know of the perfect tale,' Mr Rodriguez stated proudly, 'it is the legend of the Green Eyed God and the Volcano Spirit. An ancient tale told by the mysterious Green Eyes who are believed to live in this very jungle,'

'Is this going to be boring like history?' Harold asked rudely.

Elena chuckled before standing up, 'It is the tale of Gods, love, violence and the destruction of a civilisation,' she announced dramatically.

Collective gasps of excitement flitted across the camp.

'Do you wish to hear it?'

'Yes!' everyone cheered.

'Very well then we shall begin...'

Thousands of years ago San Lorenzo was said to be covered entirely in jungle. That is except the Golden City and the mountain. The mountain was said to be bare of all life because it was a crossing from one life to the next. It is the link between the God's and the mortals of San Lorenzo; if one wishes to speak to them they must first reach the top. The Golden City was a magnificent place of splendour unlike any in the world. Many claim that when the light struck it the place shone like gold, others believe that it was made entirely of gold.

Their King was a man driven insane by greed. He wished for his kingdom to be richer yet, to have more power, but no matter how many servants he sent to the top of the mountain the God ignored his call. Angered and driven mad he believed that he must find another way to gain the God's favour; and called for every young maiden to come to the palace at once. From them he picked a beautiful young girl who lived on the edge of the city.

She was dragged through the city, intending to sacrifice her. There were those within the city that spoke out against him and his plan to kill the girl. All of them were banished, and forbidden from ever returning again. She was pulled up the mountain and as they reached the top the King killed her.

This is where the story differs, there are those that say that after appearing before them he saw the beauty of the girl they had sacrificed and falling in love with her became enraged at their act of murder. Others storytellers claim that he had watched the girl for many moons and was so in love with her that he had begun to walk the earth in order to speak with her. Then upon seeing his true love dead became overcome with grief. But all agree that he was unable to part with her forever, so he gave her some of his immortality to bind her soul to the mountain. After this the girl's soul erupted with a furious vengeance; and the blood spilt from her body turned into fire which ran down the mountain side and reduced the city and its people to ash.

The only survivors were those that had been banished from the land, grateful for the compassion they had shown his love he granted the people sanctuary on the opposite side of the volcano and gave to them La Corazon promising them peace, life and eternal sanctuary from the fire of the volcano that now stood above them. It is said that La Corazon is the heart of their God and is shaped like him in the form of a green eye and that without it the Green Eye People will all perish.

As for the Green Eyed God and the Volcano Spirit, they remain forever separated destined to watch one another from afar, but their destinies eternally entwined through the shared immortality. Only when the green eyes city is threatened will they once again walk this earth.

The children all clapped as Mr Rodriguez finished.

'Wilikers that sure is one mighty big tale,' said Stinky awed.

'Olga what's wrong?' asked Lila, who was looking at a very weepy Olga Pataki.

'Oh it's just so sad Lil' sis, how the Green Eyed God and the Volcano girl have to be separated for eternity. Isn't that just so sad Baby Sister?' Olga wept.

'Huh? Oh yeah, tragic, truly awful,' she said sarcastically rolling her eyes at her older sisters foolishness.

'Why I guess it is just ever so sad that they can't be together because she died,' Lila replied sadly, her eyes began tearing up.

Helga sighed, rubbing her temples in an effort to block the sound of the two girls crying out. After that failed she snapped, 'Look it was sad, but if you believe the second theory then at least they got to be with one another for a while. Besides even though the story said eternity it also said that they'd walk the earth when the city is threatened, so then can be with one another then!'

Olga and Lila stopped crying and looked at her shocked. Helga hoped that maybe she'd stunned them both into silence permanently but luck was clearly not on her side as Olga began smiling widely.

'Helga is right Lil sis; they can see one another again even if it's only for a short time. And at least they can watch over one another in the meantime,' she cried happily grabbing Helga and Lila and hugging them.

Helga sat there horrified as she was squished between her sister and enemy. This was officially the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She felt a need to wash before they infected her and she began watching weepy romances, wearing makeup and lost all sense of reality. She squirmed and wriggled in their grasp.

'Alright now children everyone to bed,' commanded Principal Wartz in his no nonsense voice.

Despite the fact that they were all dead on their feet they all moaned anyway and trooped off into the tents.

It seemed like hours before everyone was finally asleep, Helga sat up and nudged Phoebe who was led next to her. The girl rolled over and peered up at her through her glasses.

'Time to go,' she mouthed silently.

Phoebe nodded and sitting up she got out of her sleeping bag fully dressed. Luckily Helga had managed to get them positions sleeping by the exit of the tent by throwing her stuff their and threatening anyone who dared to move it. They tried to move as silently as possible but it seemed that every move they made the noise was painfully loudly. As swiftly backed away from the tent they headed over to the nearby tree where Helga had managed to stash their bags earlier.

'Helga are you sure we should be doing this?' Phoebe asked timidly.

'Yes Phoebe I'm positively sure we shouldn't be doing this. It's crazy and we're going to get in a heck of a lot of trouble. But do you trust those two morons to go off into the Jungle alone and not get themselves hurt?' she whispered angrily.

'I understand Helga, you're worried about ice cream,' she said softly.

Helga froze in the middle of throwing her bag over her shoulder.

'I must admit I am worried about Gerald...and Arnold of course,' she added quickly. She began to blush furiously.

'If we follow them and they discover us what should we say Helga,' she asked.

Helga paused again.

'Um...to be honest Phoebs I didn't actually think that far ahead, I suppose we should say that we got up in the night and saw them leave, so we decided to follow?' she suggested, shrugging her shoulders uncertainly.

'Helga, I don't think that sounds very convincing. I mean why would we follow them instead of telling the teachers.'

'I don't know. Crimney Phoebe I don't have time for this right now. Look we'll figure it out when we get out of here okay?'

'Okay Helga,' Phoebe agreed.

The obedient little smile slowly slipped off the small girls face however and instead looked as though she was thinking about something. Helga's eyes flickered between the camp and the serious look on her best friends face. Suddenly she snapped out of it and shoving her bag into Helga's arms began sneaking back onto the campsite.

'Phoebe where are you going!' Helga hissed angrily into the darkness.

'I'll be back in a second Helga I promise,' she whispered back cheerily.

'Great, just perfect. Look at the mess you're getting yourself mixed up with this time Helga,' she said angrily throwing Phoebe's bag onto the floor, 'I can't believe we're going to do this, it's crazy, and all for that unrealistically optimistic Football Head.' She reached into her pocket and pulled out her Arnold locket, 'Oh Arnold my golden haired angel, the light that guides me through the darkened sky. I would travel to the ends of the earth and back to see you happy my love. How I wish I could have the courage to speak to you, to walk right up to you and say that I meant everything I said on the rooftops that night. Oh Arnold.'

She leaned forwards to press her lips to the locket when she heard a loud wheezing noise from behind her. Without looking her fist flew backwards over her shoulder and hit Brainy's face with a crunch.

'What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack,' she snapped angrily.

'Helga?' came a voice from behind her.

Helga jumped and dropped her locket to the ground. She span around quickly to see Arnold and Gerald stood there staring at her.

'Arnold!' she cried out loudly, 'I...I mean what the heck are you doing sneaking up on me in the dark Football Head! Are you trying to...?'

She was interrupted as Arnold grabbed her and clapped his hand over her mouth.

'Helga be quiet,' he shushed.

'Yeah, Pataki or that loud mouth of yours is gonna get us all in trouble,' Gerald said smirking at the indignant look on her face at being manhandled.

She pulled Arnold's hand off of her mouth and tried to get as far away from him as possible.

'Fine, fine, sheesh I'll be quiet.'

'Helga what are you doing out here?' Arnold asked curiously.

'I well I...I...What are you doing up Arnoldo?' she countered.

'I...well...we are...going to the bathroom,' he stuttered.

'The bathroom together, with your bags,' she said smirking at the lame excuse.

'Hey, you have your bag too Helga. Planning on going somewhere?' Gerald asked accusingly.

'Helga, Helga we have to get moving quickly before...' Phoebe said running over looking panicked. She faltered as she spotted Arnold and Gerald.

'Phoebe?' Arnold yelped.

'Man, this is getting ridiculous,' Gerald sighed, slapping a hand to his face.

'I should tell you all that...' Phoebe started when Helga cut her off.

'Not as ridiculous as that hair of yours Geraldo.'

'Listen to me we have to move be...'

'Give me one reason why I shouldn't knock that smirk off of your face Pataki,' Gerald growled.

'Please don't fight, we...' Phoebe pleaded, but everyone ignored her.

'You don't have the guts and you know it,' Helga scoffed.

'Guys, shut up! We don't have time for this!' Arnold said raising his voice angrily.

Gerald closed his mouth and Helga folded her arms, rolling her eyes.

'Now Phoebe what's going on,' he asked.

'If we don't want to get caught we have to move now! I just saw Harold, Stinky and Sid going to...'

But she never managed to finish her sentence as she was once again interrupted. Only this time it was from a load of screams coming from the girl's tent.

Arnold stood there in panic, his mind racing through the problem at an almost inhuman speed, he had to get out of here now or he'd never get away. But Helga and Phoebe were stood right here and if they told they'd all be done for. He could bring them, but it was dangerous. Could he trust them? He looked across at the two girls who looked just as alarmed as he did right now. He caught Helga's blue eyes staring at him with that same look she'd had when he'd cornered her on the roof of the FTI building. In that moment he'd made his decision. He ran forward and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her backwards after him.

'Hey!' she yelped, but Arnold ignored her.

'Gerald, Phoebe, move!' he commanded.

Gerald ran forward and with one hand he grabbed Phoebe's hand and with the other he picked her bag up from the floor and they ran after them, disappearing into the dense wilderness of the San Lorenzo jungle.

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><p><strong>AN: About the Myth/Legend that I created. I really wanted to write a backstory/ creation myth of the Green Eyes. I wanted it to not only explain a bit about how the Green Eyes came to be but also La Corazon and why they believe that Arnold is their God. I would like to say now though that whether or not you believe the story to be real in the HA! world is up to you. Although it will be brought up again and it will have a relevance to the plot it will not have a huge impact on Arnold as a character. Also, to anyone slightly worried about where this is going, I am not about to turn Arnold into a God and he's not about to sprout magic powers out of nowhere. Mainly because I think that'd be kind of dumb. Whether you want to believe that he is a God incarnated finally able to live a normal life and be reunited with his love, or just an ordinary boy who is wrapped up in a huge string of coincidences that the Green Eyes happen to think is real is up to you. I don't mind which you want to be real. :D**

**Click the review button, go on you know you want to!  
><strong>


	6. 6 Midnight Escapes and Messy Pranks

**A/N: For anyone who was wondering if I'd given up on this story not to worry for I am back. I started Uni again so moving house and beginning essays and a shit load of reading made me loose track of time. Does this make me a poor FF writer I'm afriad so, I apologise and we shall commense with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HA! **

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><p><strong>Chapter 6: Dark Escapes and Messy Pranks<strong>

Helga's already short temper was wearing thin as she was dragged backwards through the San Lorenzo jungle. Her feet kept tripping over the unstable ground of rocks and roots painfully jarring her ankles and causing her to stumble but he didn't notice too intent on getting as far away from the camp site as possible. She could see Phoebe and Gerald trotting along behind them, Phoebe was looking at Helga worriedly, probably able to see the anger building on her face. Gerald, however seemed to be close to laughter, and Helga had a feeling that if he hadn't been short of breath from running then he would have been in full blown hysterics.

She tried to yank her arm out of Arnold's grasp again, but his grip held on easily. She silently cursed his Grandma for giving him those karate lessons last year; the stupid shrimp was stronger than he looked. It wasn't until a tree branch slapped her sharply on the back of the head that she snapped.

'Arnold! Crimney slow down would ya Football Head!' Helga yelled angrily.

'Sorry Helga, I can't, we have to keep moving. I'll explain later,' Arnold babbled anxiously as he darted wildly through the trees dragging Helga with him.

'Well at least let go of me so I can turn around,' she huffed, finally managing to tug her arm out of his grasp, 'Do you want me to fall over Paste-For-Brains?'

She halted suddenly spinning around so that she could face Arnold and scowl angrily at him. But before she could so much as glare Gerald and Phoebe - who had been running just behind them - collided with her. All three of them tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs and bags. Turning around Arnold directed the flash light he'd rescued from his backpack earlier and shone it on his friends on the floor sighing loudly.

'OW!'

Lying on the floor, Helga could feel Phoebe's elbow digging into her side and Gerald's feet were worryingly close to her face. She winced as Phoebe tried to move jabbing her in the stomach accidently.

'Sorry Helga!'

Arnold helped to pull Phoebe off of the ground and as soon as the small girl had detangled herself from the pile Helga shoved Gerald away from her and sat up.

'What'd you stop for Pataki, are you trying to kill us?' Gerald snapped, giving her an annoyed glare before examining his t-shirt that now had a large smear of dirt across it and groaning, 'Aww man, I liked that shirt too.'

'I'm sure it'll wash out Gerald,' Phoebe said, helpfully offering the boy her hand to stand up. Smiling he took it.

Helga clambered to her feet batting Arnold's hand angrily away from her; she was in no mood for his stupid chivalry streak right now. As Phoebe and Gerald smiled sweetly at one another Helga rolled her eyes. Glancing down at her shorts she noticed that they too were now covered with dirt, and she tried to brush some of it off muttering angrily under her breath about tall hair boy and Phoebe making googly eyes at one another.

'Guys we need to move, we're still too close to the camp,' Arnold called anxiously. His eyes kept darting from the three people in front of him to the path they had just made in the undergrowth.

'Sorry Arnold, let's go' said Gerald, his attention snapping away from Phoebe guiltily, while she smiled shyly from behind him and nodded her head encouragingly.

They all looked at Helga who was fiddling with her hair attempting to see if the ends of her pigtails had gotten dirty by the extremely dim light of Arnold's torch. She looked up her eyes going wide as Arnold directed the torch to her and saw all three of them all staring at her. 'What?' she demanded, her face snapping back to a scowl.

'We were just saying that we should probably keep moving Helga, to put more space between us and the camp,' Phoebe piped up before her friend's bad mood caused another argument between her and the two boys.

Helga stood there quietly for another couple of seconds before smirking up at Arnold playfully, 'Lead the way Football Head,' she said sarcastically gesturing forward with her arms.

He rolled his eyes at her act but chose to ignore it at least she was agreeing however she chooses to go about it. He moved forward and following Arnold's lead the four of them began to once again race through the dense jungle in an attempt to put as much space between them and the camp as they could.

Back at the camp the screeching screams of girls had stopped and instead the yelling of the Principal had taken its place as he paced back and forth between the three young boys stood in front of him, Sid looked terrified, Stinky ashamed while Harold was merely looking bored. 'When we return to Hillwood you three will be serving detention until you graduate!' Principal Wartz threatened waving his finger angrily in their faces.

'Awww man,' Harold moaned loudly.

'Yes, Principal Wartz,' Stinky and Sid replied monotonously. Not daring to voice their opinions as much as their leader.

'Now you're all going to clean the mess you made in the girls tent until it's completely spotless and only then will you be allowed to sleep and no cutting corner's either I'll be watching you.' He ordered directing them off towards the tent where Mr Simmons handed them clothes and some water.

'Why does Wartz have to be so mean,' Harold whispered to the other two as they walked across the camp towards Mr Simmons.

'Yeah it was just a harmless prank, it's not as though anyone got hurt,' Sid agreed, glancing back nervously to make sure Wartz couldn't overhear them, 'Just a bit messy' he began to snicker stopping quickly as they approached Mr Simmons.

'Boys I want you all to know how incredibly disappointed I am in the three of you,' was all he said as he handed the boys their things. All three of them hung their heads feeling ashamed. The one thing they didn't want to hear from their favourite teacher was the disappointment speech.

'Man this really bites,' Stinky muttered sadly to himself as he entered the tent.

This was no fair, Harold thought to himself angrily. There he was in the middle of pulling the greatest prank of the year when Rhonda Wellington Lloyd had woken up and screamed down the camp site waking everyone else up as well. He would have gotten away with it if she hadn't woken up. Now the three of them had to have detentions and Simmons was upset with them. The tent was messy and he whined childishly as he began to clean up the mess they had made.

The girls were all across the other side of the camp attempting to clean themselves of the mess of food that they had been covered in. All of them were covered in whipped cream, peanut butter and baked beans and it stank.

'Ewww, this is so gross.'

'My hair is going to be ruined.'

'My Mom is going to kill me when she sees this.'

They had used their water supplies in an attempt to wash the worst of it off, but some were forced to change their clothes or were still brushing bits of food out of their hair. Occasionally one of them would shoot death glares at Harold's gang. Rhonda Wellington Lloyd had been the least affected out of all of them. Having been incredibly uncomfortable on the cold floor in her sleeping bag, a dramatic difference to her princess bed with its soft mattress and plush pillows and soft satin sheets meant that it had been next to impossible for her to sleep. She felt as though she could feel every tiny bump in the floor beneath the tent. Waking up for the second time she had heard a movement in her tent and seeing a large person stood above her she had screamed her head off causing all the other girls to wake up.

It was a whole hour later that until everyone was clean again and the tent had been scrubbed clean enough to satisfy Principal Wartz (although it still smelt of food). Finally everyone was allowed to go back to bed. After a day of travelling across the country and walking through the San Lorenzo jungle, everyone dropped off one by one into an exhausted sleep. All of them too tired and distracted by the excitement of the day to even notice that four of their party were missing.

Their sluggish feet skimmed the floor, as their heads grew heavy and thick with exhaustion. They strained to keep their eyes open against the ever growing darkness surrounding them as the density of the jungle increased with every step. The moon hung lazily in the sky above them slowly beginning to descend peering between the thick canopies of the trees. As tired as they were Arnold hadn't let them stop for a second, his body grew heavier and heavier, acting as a dead weight attempting to pull him to the ground, but he kept moving forward ambling slowly and on shaky legs. He didn't much further only making it into a small clearing before his vision blurred and he swayed on the spot, stumbling slightly. He felt a hand steady him, holding him still to stop him from falling to the floor. Gerald, Phoebe and Helga all stopped to make sure Arnold didn't fall over again, their shaky limbs stung with relief at being allowed to finally stop

'Arnold, let's stop here for the night,' Gerald said, putting a hand over his mouth to cover his yawning, 'if we don't sleep soon we're going to drop where we stand.'

He made to argue but another wave of dizziness over took him and the hand on his arm gripped tighter and pulled him upright.

He knew Gerald was right he was close to collapsing from exhaustion. Rubbing his sore eyes and yawning loudly he turned nodding silently in consent. Gerald sighed in relief and dumped his bag to the ground and flopping down after it. His head drooped and he blinked rapidly in an attempt to keep his eyes open. He knew he should have got more sleep last night, but he had been so excited about being able to finally go to San Lorenzo, to get the chance he'd been waiting for all his life that his body had kept him frustratingly awake and now he was paying for it.

He heard a sigh to the left of him and felt himself being gently tugged over to the tree that Gerald and Phoebe were now sat at. He followed the hand without question, it was gentle but firm with him and he followed it willingly as it forced him to sit down on his best friends other side. He slowly blinked up to see Helga crouched down next to him undoing the straps of his heavy backpack to free him from it. She underneath the glow of the moon and stars he could see her cheeks turn darker as he continued to stare at her.

'Geez Football Head talk about helpless,' she said, softly without any of her usual bite, 'you wouldn't last five minutes out here with me.'

He felt himself grin widely, his eyes drooping half lidded as she fiddled with the second strap and the heavy weight was released from his shoulders. She glanced at him and her big eyes went wide in shock before she stood up abruptly and quickly walked over to Phoebe sitting down and facing away from the rest of them. Arnold continued to watch her as she attempted to wrestle her sleeping bag from its holder.

In between them Gerald looked from Helga with her back to them to Arnold who watched her with a look that was disturbingly close to the ones he used to give Lila and Ruth McDougal. Shaking his head in pity at his best friends' hopelessness he looked to Phoebe who was grinning happily as she watched Arnold watch Helga. He opened his mouth to her to ask but she pushed her finger to her lips in a shushing movement and shook her head still smiling. Gerald felt as though he was missing something, something big, but too tired to think about it now clumsily climbed inside his own sleeping bag. Maybe if he remembered he'd ask Phoebe tomorrow, she always knew more than he did, heck she knew more than anyone did.

Helga silently cursed herself for her moment of weakness; she blamed the exhaustion for causing the drop in her usual iron defences. Arnold had noticed, how could he not have noticed, she was right in front of him and he had been grinning at her. The same smile flashed in her mind and she was tempted for a moment to turn her head to look at him again but resisted. Maybe she was just imagining it; he couldn't have been looking at her in that way, that was the look he gave girls he liked. She shook her head angrily for daring to believe it

_Come on Helga, he was practically falling over, his eyes were half lidded like that because he could barely keep them open, not because he actually likes you, _she thought. She flopped backwards angrily, lying down and staring up at the stars. _There was no denying that he was smiling at you though? _Her mind spoke up and she slapped a hand to her ears in order to block out the sound of her thoughts betraying her, causing her to hope.

For the longest time Arnold had felt so alone, ever since he had found the map he had felt this weight on his shoulders knowing that the hope of finding his parents rested on his small shoulders. But as he lay there beneath the waning moon watching the stars shine brightly twinkling against the inky depths of the night sky knowing that three of his friends were there beside him he suddenly felt happy. Tomorrow he would ask for Helga and Phoebe to help him and the four of them could find his parents together. Remembering the FTI incident for the millionth time something told him Helga would not refuse him and wherever Helga and Gerald went Phoebe would follow loyally. Yes for the first time in month Arnold didn't feel so alone.

'Night guys,' he said suddenly.

'Night, man,' Gerald yawned back.

'Goodnight Arnold, Gerald, Helga.'

He held his breath waiting for her response, nothing. Just as he began to wonder if she had fallen asleep he heard it. It was like a whisper carried in the wind but he heard it.

'Goodnight Arnold.'

Smiling to himself he turned over and closed his eyes.

As the four children slipped off into an undisturbed slumber they didn't realise that they were being watched. Nearby within the bushes a figure watched staring at the boy with the football shaped head. The man mumbled the word 'Arnold' before slinking off into the night back to his people.

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><p><strong>If anyones confused about time span here then remember that these are ten year olds so therefore their ordinary bedtime would proabably be about 9pm. So by the time they are escaping here it would be about 1011pm and by the time they stop for the night I'm gonna say its about 1 or 2 in the morning. Just in case anyone was thinking it was almost morning when they stopped to sleep.**

**Reviews are welcomed**


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